Are your parents ageing and staying alone? Is loneliness taking a toll on their mental and physical health? Do you worry about their well-being more often? Do your ageing parents need help with their daily chores, or Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL)? Are you worried about their safety?
If you realize the answer to all these questions is YES, then it’s time for you to take that step forward. Before the situation gives you sleepless nights, read why the decision of hiring a full-time caregiver for your ageing parents can be overwhelming.
Here is what you need to know before hiring a in-home caregiver (commonly called “Ayah,” “Mashi,” or attendant).
1. Motivate
You would always want someone competent to look after your older parents. Hiring an experienced, skilled, and trained caregiver
your ageing parents can be the best decision. However, it is not always possible to find someone experienced who would want to live in a person’s home. That is where you need to find someone who motivates and understand the needs of you parents. They will know or learn how to take care of elders with the activities of daily living and with specific needs.
2. Companionship
Elders are our parents, and yet as they get older, they can be like children. They want to be pampered and taken care of. They want somebody they can chat and share their stories with. Find a caregiver who can be a good companion for your parents staying alone.
3. Mental Health
It is said that a happy mind is a healthy mind. Loneliness often leads to several mental health conditions in older adults. The companionship of private caregivers can be helpful in beating depression and anxiety and keeping the mind healthy. Remember that loneliness is as big a killer as smoking cigarettes. Empower the caregiver, and the service provider (more on that later in the below point) to help find ways to ward off loneliness. For instance, occasional coffee outings, days trips and spa pampering are small steps to help keep your parents active. And they can have their caregiver helping them in every step of the way.
4. Monitoring
After deciding to get help of a caregiver for your ageing parents, the next step is hiring. But that is easier said than done, the process of hiring and firing a caregiver can be troublesome for you, especially, if you are staying away from your parents. In such cases, a service provider can minimize the inconvenience. In my role as an executive within TriBeCa Care, we have professionals managing the recruitment, ongoing training and monitoring of the care givers. The service provider can provide you a caregiver as per your requirements and can take care of providing alternative staff or caregiver in the absence of one. Moreover, if you are not satisfied with any particular caregiver, you can always ask them to replace the one provided. It is also best to contract with your service provider to proactively check in on the service at a scheduled and periodic period. The extra cost to manage your parent’s expectation is well worth in the small price that you may have to pay
5. Prioritize Health over Money
The services of the caregiver from a professional service provider can be a little more expensive, and from a local agency. But when it comes the healthy living of our parents, money is a little price to pay for, especially for the proactive monitoring.
6. Trust and Security
Will you allow a stranger into your frail parents’ home? But this is what a caregiver from a small outfit will be like. With ever increasing crime rate against older adults, the first thing that might cross your mind is whether it is safe to allow some stranger to roam around your house who can be trusted. In such scenario, taking the help of a professional service provider can be a great relief. They will provide you a caregiver for
your ageing parents only after their background check, requisite verification of details, training, and appropriate certification.
Our parents stood by our side all along, sacrificed their needs and happiness for our sake. It’s time we should play our part, take the right step forward, and help them grow old with love, compassion, understanding, and dignity.
Sangita Roy is the head of TriBeCa Care’s Caregiver and Nursing Services. She can be reached at sangita@newwpsite.tribecacare.com or call us at: 03340277777 / 8017770323.
